All Manzanar photographs
from the Ansel Adams Library of Congress Archives unless otherwise
noted.
Text excerpts from "Manzanar"
by John Armor and Peter Wright"

Japanese Americans: 99 Nen no AiThis is the story of a family of Japanese immigrants who crossed over to America 99 years ago, their strugges in America pre-, during, and post WWII. It is the story of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd generation Japanese Americans from both the American and Japanese perspectives. This is a story every American should see.

Portraits
of Manzanar

Aiko Hamaguchi

Frank Horosawa

Catherine Yamaguchi

Youth Choir
Practice

Kay Kageyama

THE
NISEI

Who were the people brought to Manzanar at gunpoint?

They shared only one common characteristic: "a Japanese
ancestor in any degree."

Two-thirds were first-generation American citizens. They lived
in American cities, attended American schools, and thought of
themselves as Americans. That belief was sorely tested when,
by order of President Roosevelt -- an order carried out by General
John L. DeWitt, West Coast Commander, and his subordinates --
they were removed from their homes, schools, and businesses,
and brought to Manzanar and nine other camps like it. The first-generation
Japanese Americans were called, in Japanese, Nisei.

A few were second-generation Americans, called Sansei.
Neither they nor their parents had ever known any other life
than their life in the United States.

Almost a third of the prisoners were Japanese citizens, resident
aliens by definition of the U.S. immigration law. They were called
Issei. All of this group had lived in the United States
at least eighteen years, since American borders were closed to
Japanese immigrants in 1924. All had been specifically barred
from applying for American citizenship. The right to become an
American citizen was not allowed to the Japanese until 1952,
when quotas were introduced.

Because the Issei would have become American citizens,
given the opportunity, the Issei and the Sansei
are sometimes described generically as Nikkei.

Louise Nakamura

Frank Hirosama

Describing Manzanar and the others as "concentration camps"
conjures horrible images of the ovens of Dachau under the Nazis,
or the Soviet Gulag in Siberia. As bad as they were, the American
concentration camps never approached the horrifying conditions
of the camps in Europe. There were no gas chambers or medical
"experiments" at Manzanar or the other American camps.
There were no attempts to work prisoners to death.

In fact, the food and the medical care at Manzanar were better
than adequate, in large measure because the Nisei were
given the opportunity to provide for themselves.

There was one other difference separating the American concentration
camps from the European camps. In most instances, families were
kept together. The Nisei prized the institution of the
family. It may be this difference, more than all others that
allowed them to survive and prosper under very difficult circumstances.

He said, My name is Nakashimau
I am a proud American.
I came here in '27,
From my homeland of Japan.
And I picked your grapes and oranges,
Saved some money, bought a store.
Until 1942,
Pearl Harbor, and the War.

Came the relocation orders,
They took our house, the store, the car,
And they drove us through the desert,
To a place called Manzanar.
A Spanish word for apple orchards,
Though we saw no apple trees.
Just the rows of prison barracks,
With the barbed wire boundaries.

Chorus:

And we dream of apple blossoms
Waving free beneath the stars,
Till we wake up in the desert,
The prisoners of Manzanar,
Manzanar.

Fifty years have all but vanished,
And now I am an old man.
But I don't regret the day
That I came here from Japan.
But on moonless winter nights,
I often wish upon a star,
That I'd forget the shame and sorrow,
That I felt at Manzanar.